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Google's Comical New Social Networking Patent
theodp writes "GeekWire reports on Google's just-granted patent on creating and sharing social network status updates in the form of comic strips, a la Bitstrips. Google also envisions an educational role for its new invention, which the search giant has dubbed the Self-Creation of Comic Strips in Social Networks and Other Communications. Google explains, 'Aside from humor, such comic strips are also usable for education, for instance in summarizing a real-time conversation between two political leaders as it is happening. By posting such a comic strip on a social network facility such as a social network blog or tweet, others may more readily follow the flow of the conversation than if it had been summarized in plain text.'"
Fuck patents but this is actually pretty interesting
Charlie Brown tries to kick a beta Google football. Lucy retires it right before Charlie Brown gets a chance to kick it.
the world really doesn't need jerkcityr or jerkcity 2.0,...
Google gives us tons of "free" stuff. And as we know nothing is actually free: it means we are the product.
For example, with the info they gather from Search, AdWords, Analytics, Toolbar, and so much more, they are able to see where practically everyone goes everywhere on the net.
So ask yourself: what does Google get out of this one?
Life imitates Dilbert.
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
I certainly hope they included in the patent 1) only letting people say what Google wants them to say, 2) Only including comics that are already predrawn with pre-existing text, only the name being different 3) not permitting the mention of anyone without an online existance.
Because those elements are key to their business model.
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
Seems like it did mostly the same thing?
Google Legal Chief: Patent Reform a Balancing Act: "The U.S. patent system makes it too easy for companies to get patents on software."
Apart from being a ridiculous patent, it will never work as intended. The mechanism for this trivial display method will never generate anything better than the online comic/animation engines already out there and those things produce some horrid flaccid generic tripe.
A true comic relies as much, if not more on the graphics to convey the story as it does on the text. It takes a pretty good artist to actually pull this off. The only thing this google pipe-dream will be able to accomplish is create generic pictures and half the story in text which amounts to information loss. This is the best scenario but Google will probably use this information gap to it's advantage to manipulate the content in it's favour somehow.
What is described above is essentially MS Comic Chat, which I had fun with back in 1998.
Given the Patent Clone Wars, what I find comical here is that Microsoft hasn't cued up their lawyers yesterday on it.
Why this could bite Zuck and his “Face Book” wordo box ladder! It could be the fight of the century! Forget mobile wars, this is the big one! Think of the legal fees to be made! I can see it all now :0)
The purpose of existence is to make money.
Google engineers are brilliant!
They have found the cure against the number 1 killer disease in the US... boredom!
Thank you, Google, for saving us! As a gift in return, you may have a peek at all our personal affairs.
If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
Does make me wonder how many people have actually read Free as in Freedom.
The book's free, ya know. In every sense of the word.
"nstead of giving people the news they need , why not give them the news they want ?"
--Ron Burgundy, Anchorman 2
How is this patentable?
I want to shoot the messenger!
Heroine habit meaning your habit of choosing to play as a female trainer?
or is it an implementation?
In unrelated news. Weren't you disappointed too in the New Year's Concert from Vienna?
I expected the NSA Polka and the Surveillance Waltz.
Happy New Year anyway!
After I read TFA, I thought it might be a fun thing - like an XKCD version of Facebook. Then you mentioned Bit Strips, and my vision turned to horror.
God, I hate bit strips. Can't really say why, but it annoying really fast. I think it simply gave the masses yet another reason to say something stupid.
Place nail here >+
Why not skip ahead and just try to patent the evolution of culture and using the Internet, right away? Fuck you and your stupid patents!
Signature intentionally left blank.
... Fuck off.
Signed,
The Internets.
The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Eccl 1:9
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
.. having been separated last year, I've been hitting the internet dating, including Tinder.
Anyone who uses a Bitstrip as a profile photo gets rejected instantly unless they are very, very compelling otherwise. It just conveys a complete lack of honesty and originality to me..
Lots of people say they hate them but they never give a reason either. Odd.
.. having been separated last year, I've been hitting the internet dating, including Tinder.
Anyone who uses a Bitstrip as a profile photo gets rejected instantly unless they are very, very compelling otherwise. It just conveys a complete lack of honesty and originality to me..
You assume, inaccurately, that they'd not want to be "instantly rejected" by someone that condescending.
What about xkcd or jibjab? It seems like Google and others are going fairly 'general' in trying to copyright and patent all and sundry, but its dumb. They didn't create this, the idea isn't exclusive or novel. There are billions of examples of prior art. If they get this and they try to sue, all you need to do is either 1) point to any of the millions of pieces of prior art already on the net, or 2) patent mathematical computations on a social network, and demand billions daily from all and sundry --for doing nothing--.
"nstead of giving people the news they need , why not give them the news they want ?"
--Ron Burgundy, Anchorman 2
Americans (and I am) are idiots and dont know what they want..
Google is giving people what they [want] people to see.